Yesterday, supporters of affirmative action in admissions got a reprieve. The Supreme Court voted 7-1 to return the case to the 5th Circuit for reconsideration. But that reprieve won’t change the ultimate calculus that spells the doom of affirmative action in school admissions. The problem is a fundamental contradiction between the allowed reason for such policies…
Liberalism
The Colorado Springs Experiment, Part I
A recent episode of This American Life examined the difficulties and decisions made by the city government of Colorado Springs. Put briefly, the city began to run out of money and had to start shutting down basic services. Then a successful resort owner in town proposed that the city could save money by running more…
Semantics: Moderate v. Centrist II
My earlier post (here) received a thoughtful response this week from Solomon Kleinsmith over at Rise of the Center, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to continue that conversation here. Readers may want to take a look at his comment on the earlier post, to which I’ll be replying. (Also, if you’re interested in…
Our Lost Faith in Professionals
Lately, it seems that every profession is under serious attack. Of course, lawyers have long been the butt of jokes. But now teachers are portrayed as leeches sucking the taxpayers dry, protecting their cushy jobs at all costs, and failing our children. Everyone seems to openly scoff at the idea that government “experts” know anything…
DOMA
Two key principles in passionate moderate politics are (1) a commitment to proper procedure and (2) a commitment to upholding and improving our best institutions. Some recent developments over the defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) caught my attention as examples of moderate and immoderate politics regarding these two principles. In particular, this…